


The Generation of Tortured Souls (Or: Teikō Middle School isn't as innocent as it seems.)

by just_an_aussie_otaku



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Akashi Masaomi's A+ Parenting, Bad Parenting, Gen, I'm sorry my rainbow children, Kuroko Tetsuya-centric, Mentions of Suicide, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Winter Cup, Teiko Middle School's A+ Teaching, The Teiko gang really went through it, past trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 06:20:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19997269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_an_aussie_otaku/pseuds/just_an_aussie_otaku
Summary: Teikō Middle School: the cradle from which the infamousGeneration of Miraclesemerged. Renowned across Japan for the discipline, determination and perseverance it instils in its students from day one, it is a prime learning establishment.When the Generation of Miracles graduated from Middle School, they were radically different from when they had first enrolled. No one quite knows how or why this happened, and the Miracles would like to keep it that way.Unfortunately, they may not have a choice.Kuroko’s Basketball is © Fujimaki Tadatoshi, Weekly Shounen Jump and Shueisha.





	The Generation of Tortured Souls (Or: Teikō Middle School isn't as innocent as it seems.)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Bonds of War](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16291394) by [Wayfarer_Rye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wayfarer_Rye/pseuds/Wayfarer_Rye). 



> So I read [’Bonds of War’](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16291394/chapters/38101697) by Wayfarer_Rye and... I have latched onto this idea. I think it'd be an interesting spin on explaining why the Generation of Miracles ended up the way they did, (Momoi included). I’d been stewing on this idea for quite some time, albeit quite vaguely, but when I read that fic everything clicked. Bam! Story idea!
> 
> Another thing that has been sitting in my WIP box for ages... 
> 
> More chapters to come!

Nine detectives sit around a circular, wooden table. The tension in the room is thicker than wet concrete. It’s pitch black outdoors – nearly two hours before dawn – and it’s not much brighter in the room. 

They were all utterly exhausted.

The man at the head of the table speaks up, after receiving an alert on his phone. He stands, and the other detectives wait with bated breath.

“It’s time, ladies and gentlemen. The files are being released as we speak. It’s finally done.”

The men and women at the table sigh in relief. They congratulate each other, thank each other for their hard work, and then fall quiet once more. Now, it was a matter of waiting. Waiting for the news coverage. Waiting for the arrests. Waiting for the shutdown of the school. Waiting for the public outrage.

They would finally topple the oppressive Empire that was Teikō Middle School.

* * *

> _“BREAKING NEWS… Teikō Middle School… a pragmatic motto… torturing its students… Corporal punishment… Guilt-tripping parents and carers…”_

> _“THE HORRIFYING TRUTH OF TEIKŌ MIDDLE SCHOOL… Teachers break their silence to bravely speak up… Inhumane teaching methods… Some parents encouraged the staff…”_
> 
> _“'TEACHING GONE TOO FAR’… Corporal punishments… public humiliations… A shocking series of suicides…”_
> 
> _“…Teikō Middle School… infamous basketball prodigies ‘The Generation of Miracles’… cruel teachers with an even crueller curriculum… Federal Government denies any knowledge…”_

The woman turns her phone off, dropping it onto her desk. She clutches her head in her hands, thin fingers carding through smooth, periwinkle hair.

This was it. She was finished. The police would be here soon. She’d spend the rest of her life in prison. If she was lucky. 

There was no point in fighting. 

She stretches back in the desk chair, staring blankly at the ceiling. A sliver of morning sun peeked through the partially opened curtains. Dawn had broken.

The door to her hotel room caved in. Thundering footsteps raced towards the bedroom. 

She turns her swivel chair to face the entranceway just as the armoured officers breached the door.

“Kuroko Shiko! You are under arrest! Lay face-down on the ground with your hands behind your head!”

Shiko smiles in resignation and does as she’s told.

* * *

Tetsuya opens his eyes. 

The morning sun shone through the wide window next to his bed, illuminating his neat bedroom, and signalling the start of his day.

He slips out of his bed, and goes about his morning routine as he normally would: silent as a mouse. He takes a quick shower to make himself more alert (and to tame his bed-hair), and then changes into his school clothes, leaving his tie undone. He’d leave that until after he’d finished his breakfast. He applies some deodorant and clips his fingernails.

He descends the stairs just as the dawn light beings to peek through the blinds of the living room windows. He eats his breakfast silently, enjoying his glass of plain milk and jam on toast. He quickly washes and dries the dishes, without making so much as a “clink”.

His sister Mizuki is far less elegant. She stomps about the upstairs of the house, pacing to and from what was probably her room and the bathroom. She was usually loud, but not _this_ loud. Something must have come up with a friend or classmate at university.

Mizuki had initially moved into her own flat when she started university, but after she realised she was being stalked, and her flat was broken into one night, their parents demanded she stay at home until they found her a safer area. Hopefully, one where she’d have a flatmate, and better security.

As her name suggested, she held a beauty that caught the eye of any passer-by. Not as bright and bombastic as the sun’s light, her beauty was subtler – softer, like the light of the moon.

Strangely, people who knew his sister would compare Tetsuya to her often - would that imply Tetsuya shared her beauty, or at least a part of it? It was a thought that crossed his mind often, and he was always stumped. His grandmother had always called him cute, but don’t all grandmothers find their grandchildren to be the most beautiful creatures alive? Aside from their own children, of course.

Tetsuya shook his head. He could dwell on that later, in the afternoon, when he wasn’t at risk of being late to school.

As Tetsuya began to tighten his tie, he came to the abrupt realisation that Nigou hadn’t followed him downstairs. He didn’t remember seeing the malamute in his room, either. He probably slept in Mizuki’s room, and is now keeping her company.

He hears muffled curses and shouts from upstairs – which is most unlike his sister – but pays her no mind. She may be ranting on the phone to one of her friends, as she is known to do.

Tetsuya glides through the kitchen and quickly refills Nigou’s dog bowl, but he doesn't call for him – he figures that his four-legged friend can wander down at his own accord.

His father hadn’t come downstairs, so he must still be asleep. His father worked nights, but usually joined Tetsuya for breakfast, or at the very least descended the stairs to send him off.

He checks the calendar next to the wall-mounted clock.

It was Thursday, so he had basketball practice before and after school. He’d have to skip morning practice, because his class had received an assignment which was due before school began, but he’d already informed Coach Riko, so all was well on that front. He’d be able to hang around the gym for the last twenty minutes of practice, at least. 

He also notes that he had another appointment at the tattoo artist’s parlour tomorrow afternoon – it was the final touch-up for the three koi fish on his right hip. They were small, and were specifically placed so that they could be hidden by his underwear. It was against school policy to have tattoos, after all.

The tattoo was his sister’s idea, in fact. His father had agreed without question, and had booked an appointment at the very parlour where he had many of his own tattoos inked. Koi fish are associated with good luck, strength of purpose, and perseverance.

And, oh, how Tetsuya had persevered.

It was a paternal family tradition that, once the child had turned fifteen, they would get a tattoo. Nothing huge or extravagant, but something meaningful. The child then had the option to continue receiving tattoos throughout their high school career, or go about their life with just the one. Getting a tattoo at age fifteen wasn’t illegal, but it needed the written consent of a parent.

The tradition had been passed down from his father’s yakuza ancestors. Which _hadn’t_ died out. His father claimed that he had left that life behind – that the ways of the Yakuza were wrong. But Tetsuya knew he was lying. He knew his father hadn't left. He couldn’t. Like Tetsuya couldn’t give up basketball. It was his _life_. The syndicate had changed from the aggressive and murderous group it once was, but it was still a criminal organisation. It was still _illegal._

Tetsuya decided he didn't want to spend the rest of his morning dwelling on that, so he tightened his tie and adjusted his collar, calling out to his sister in goodbye.

He made his way to the door, swapped his indoor slippers for his school shoes, and opened the front door.

“Tetsuya!”

Tetsuya whips around, alarmed.

He sees his sister shoot down the stairs like she’s being chased by an axe murderer – Tetsuya half expects to see Jason Voorhees come sprinting after her – and beelines towards him, motioning for him to come forward.

He closes the door halfway, curious and more than a little concerned.

“Mizuki-nee-san? What is it?”

“Shut the door! Come inside this instant!”

Tetsuya blinks owlishly at his sister, who was in a state of uncharacteristic disarray.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

His sister _sobs. She_ takes a deep breath but seems to be unable to form a sentence.

Tetsuya places a hand on his sister’s shoulder, unsure of how to comfort her. “What’s wrong, Mizuki? Why are you crying?”

In lieu of a verbal response, she digs her phone out of her dressing gown pocket and turns it on, revealing an online news article. She turns the phone towards him.

Tetsuya stops breathing. He snatches the phone from his sister’s hand and steadies himself against the wall, dropping his school bag on the wooden floor.

> _“‘THE SECRETS OF TEIKŌ MIDDLE SCHOOL EXPOSED’…infamous basketball prodigies ‘The Generation of Miracles’… cruel teachers with an even crueller curriculum… Federal Government denies any knowledge…”_

Tetsuya scrolls through the article, breaths coming in shallow.

> _“…Local priest states: ‘Let us pray now, that this generation of tortured souls may finally find peace after traversing through the Hell that was Teikō Middle School’… Prayer service offered at all local churches…”_

His sister hiccups. “Read the… Scroll down to the last few paragraphs,” she manages to say.

Tetsuya does as Mizuki requested.

> _“The ringleader and Vice-Principal of this hellish school - whose name shall not be mentioned in the interest of her family’s privacy and safety - was apprehended just an hour ago, and will be formally charged within the next 12 hours… The woman, whom media outlets have been instructed to refer to as_ “Mrs. S,” _had actually enrolled two of her own children, and were not spared from her cruelty….”_

Tetsuya’s vision blurred with tears.

Mizuki wrapped him in a hug, and began crying once again.

They were free.

* * *

The three agents gathered outside of the Kuroko household reviewed their options.

They had arrived some five minutes earlier to the sight of an ajar front door and an empty driveway. Alarmed, they made a beeline towards the door, only to stop when the sobs of the Kuroko children reached their ears.

They decided to wait a few minutes to allow the two some time to collect their thoughts and get the initial shock out of their systems before making introductions. From what they could tell, the father, Kuroko Kichiro, was not home. The man worked odd hours, so it wasn't unusual for him to be out of the house before school hours began. It'd make things tricky, since they'd have to track him down too, but ultimately not world-ending. 

It was going to be a long day, but it would be worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Some of the meanings of the name “Tetsuya” are “philosophy” and “intelligence”, which is very fitting for our dear shadow. I imagine his sister being more of a beauty than a brain – not stupid, but not a genius, either. I decided on “Mizuki”, which can be interpreted as “beautiful moon”. 
> 
> “Shiko” can be interpreted as meaning “a woman made of stone,” which is self-explanatory. 
> 
> "Kichirou" contains the character for "good luck" and "son". I named him as such because I imagine him being quite the lucky man, (aside from marrying a sociopathic pragmatist that puts Lady Macbeth to shame.)


End file.
